On 23 July 2026 Mubadala Capital moved a private-markets fund on-chain - through Abu Dhabi operator Kaio. The token went to Coinbase's corporate treasury. For US public companies, this is the first deal involving a regulated tokenised private markets fund.
What happened: Mubadala Capital puts private-markets fund on blockchain
Mubadala Capital, the asset-management arm of Abu Dhabi's sovereign Mubadala Investment Company, announced the launch of a tokenised version of its private-markets fund on 23 July 2026. The tokenisation partner is local fintech Kaio. The fund was deployed simultaneously on three blockchains: Base (Coinbase's network), Solana and Sui.
Multi-chain is a deliberate choice. It is meant to reach different allocator groups - traditional-finance institutionals, crypto-native funds and corporate treasury desks.
About $75 million was raised at launch - from a mix of traditional and crypto-native allocators. The figure looks modest against Mubadala Capital's book: the arm manages, advises and administers over $430 billion in assets. But a pilot bearing a sovereign brand is a telling one.
Kaio ADGM tokenisation platform: the operator behind the deal
Kaio is a tokenisation platform licensed by the ADGM (Abu Dhabi Global Market). The regulator is not a crypto sandbox but a full-scope financial services regulator, working under a common-law framework. Total assets wrapped through the platform run at about $144–150 million. Clients include BlackRock, Brevan Howard, Hamilton Lane and Laser Digital. The technical perimeter covers more than ten supported networks.
In April 2026 Kaio raised $8 million in a round led by Tether, with Systemic Ventures, Further Ventures and Laser Digital taking part - global crypto and institutional players publicly entering Abu Dhabi's tokenisation stack. For a business structuring its UAE presence, this changes the baseline checklist. A regulatory perimeter already exists for deals of this type, and opening a corporate bank account in the UAE stops being an optional add-on and becomes part of the access infrastructure to the product.
Kaio CEO Shrey Rastogi puts the market pain plainly: “These are generally deals that are private, hard to access for most retail investors.”
Why Coinbase's purchase is a precedent
The key fact of the deal is the buyer of the tokenised Abu Dhabi fund. Coinbase did not access the asset through a client account or a crypto-native fund. The purchase went onto the corporate treasury of a US public company. According to The National, this is the first time a US public player has added a regulated tokenised private markets fund to its own balance sheet.
Brett Tejpaul, co-CEO of Coinbase Institutional, comments that the move “reflects the growing maturity of regulated real-world assets”.
The signal is twofold. For the crypto industry, an institutional player is legitimising the RWA segment. For private markets, a major US operator is treating tokenised funds not as an experiment but as an asset class fit for treasury.
UAE tokenised private markets: what it means for investors in the UAE
Abu Dhabi cements its position as a global hub for regulated tokenisation of real-world assets. A sovereign wraps its fund in a blockchain shell. The ADGM regulator hosts the deal. A US public operator puts the token on its balance sheet. The combination is rare - and highly visible.
For clients already operating through DIFC or ADGM, a new institutional route to private markets opens up. Historically, entry into such funds was the preserve of sovereign structures, pension funds and endowments. Tokenisation does not remove the qualification filter - only qualified and accredited investors can buy - but it takes down some operational friction: on-chain settlement, programmable transferability, atomic settlement.
Max Franzetti, Co-Head of Mubadala Capital Solutions, frames the direction: “Bringing it onchain extends that access to a new class of qualified investors.”
For entrepreneurs and investors planning to build a long-term footprint in the UAE and considering the UAE Golden Visa route for investors, a tokenised private markets fund is a new instrument category worth building a long-term presence strategy around. Not just as an asset bet. As a sign that sovereign capital and global crypto platforms are converging precisely inside the local regulated infrastructure.
Context: the tokenised RWA market keeps growing
Tokenised real-world assets: over $30 billion at the start of 2026 - up 300% year-on-year. Forecasts diverge but stay bullish. McKinsey sketches $2 trillion by 2030. Standard Chartered puts the number at $30.1 trillion by 2034.
For context: BlackRock's flagship tokenised product, BUIDL, had grown to $2.5 billion by May 2026. Against that backdrop, Mubadala Capital's three-chain launch with a US institutional anchor investor is a storyline private-banking desks and family offices will watch closely.
